When a little birdie told me that the Atlantic's Marc Ambinder is reporting that the Obama Administration is vetting Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen for Secretary of Health and Human Services, my head exploded.  I damn near stroked out, y'all.  A diehard Hillarycrat, this is his transparent way of saying that we would have been better off with the Queen of Triangulation, and by extension, her approach to health care reform.  I don't know if that's true, but if Barack Obama gives a mutha%$#*ing bastard like Phil Bredesen the reins of HHS, I do know we'll all wish we had been volunteer slaves on the Clintons neo-liberal plantation.

Placing Governor Bredesen in charge of the Administration's health care reform effort is analogous to giving a pedophile unfettered access to children.  At least an establishment tool like Tom Daschle has a few scruples left; a capitalist pig like Phil Bredesen has none. It's my moral obligation to sound the alarm so that this capitalist piggy screams "wee, wee, wee," all the way home.

I know what you're thinking. "Damn, Skeptical Brotha has gone off his meds."  If you must know, I ain't on no meds, at least not for that, but if I were, and I depended on Tennessee's Medicaid program, for example, an MF like Phil Bredesen would be rationing my sh*t to "2 name brand drugs and 3 generic prescription drugs monthly, the lowest in the country."  This is done without any regard for the maladies people have or what doctors say their patients need. Thanks be to Gawd that my therapist thinks my depression is situational and not clinical.  That is a conversation for another day and I need to stay on task.  

News broke this afternoon that New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, Barack Obama's nominee for Secretary of Commerce, has withdrawn his nomination over questions regarding a federal investigation of the state's $1.5 million dollar financial services contract with a Beverly Hills, California firm, CDR, who's CEO, David Rubin, donated $110,000 to political committee's affiliated with Governor Richardson.

I am heartsick because I've always felt that Richardson's presence in the cabinet essential to Obama's success. Nevertheless, as my grandma is fond of saying, "one monkey don't stop no show."  The vacancy represents an opportunity to do something no president has done and after the Warren fiasco a few weeks back, I've come to feel pretty strongly that Barack Obama needs to appoint a "gay American," as former New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevy put it, to the cabinet of the United States.

When you stop and think about it this is a barrier that Bill Clinton should have shattered years ago, and one Al Gore probably would have if the ignorant tumbleweed that is George W. Bush hadn't tripped him up.   Clinton, after the broken promise of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," attempted to buy off the LGBT community with the appointments of James Hormel as ambassador to Luxemburg and Roberta Achtenberg as Deputy Secretary of HUD. The public break with activist David Mixner, a leading LGBT fundraiser and convention delegate for Clinton, damaged Clinton's relationship with the LGBT community in a big way.

I seriously doubt that the Wayans Brothers or the writers of MAD TV could have written a funnier spoof than yesterday's orgy of idiocy featuring Rod "Governor Soprano" Blagojevich, Roland Burris and Bobby Rush.  To borrow a phrase from the always-quotable Christopher Hitchens, this appointment is a "ludicrous embarrassment."

The presser was a comedians dream and the clumsy injection of race by Bobby Rush was sadder than it was despicable.  First, seeing how Bobby has physically suffered from throat cancer was heart breaking, but his reasons for supporting Blagojevich in his bullsh*t was even more tragic.  Poor Bobby is clearly suffering from chemo brain because Blagojevich's bi-polar antics have grown more outrageous with time, and his latest stunt is as disingenuous as it is insane.  Blagojevich is desperately trying to disprove the allegations of extortion and contract fraud against him.  It won't work. His career is over and nothing he says or does will ever change that.

Unfortunately for Rod Blagojevich, Roland Burris is not a Magic Negro capable of absolving his manifold sins although he would like him to be. (One needs to be a palatable, focus grouped, establishment Negro creation of David Axelrod capable of raising $750 million dollars to be a proper receptacle for white liberal fantasies of racial absolution.) Burris is an uninspiring and irascible functionary that has let his ego get the better of him.  

Anticlimactically, and antiseptically Hillary Rodham Clinton, announced the long anticipated formation of her Presidential Exploratory Committee.  Bathed in soft light and looking deceptively relaxed in a tastefully appointed sitting room, she officially launched her effort to retake the dynastic throne of American Imperial power from the most venal and corrupt regime to preside over the executive branch of our government.  

This moment in American politics would never have been possible without the complicity and mendacity of the Bush dynasty.  Their lust for power, subversion of the electoral process, and manipulation of divisive social wedge issues is without compare to any regime in the last century.  They have managed to steal the Presidency from the American people and place it in the service of their plutocratic and imperial designs in a manner, which has polarized the nation and the world as never before.

Over $20 million in book advances and $29 million in speaking fees have placed the Clintons at the pinnacle of the American class structure. They are uniquely positioned to benefit from that status and to reap the benefits of 30 years of catering to wealth and corporate power. As previously quoted, Michael Parenti has opined that "American capitalism represents more than just an economic system; it is an entire cultural and social order, a plutocracy-that is, a system of rule by and for the rich-for the most part."

The battle for House Majority Leader may not be an obvious thing for me to be blogging about. Too inside baseball.  However, I do have an opinion.  Democrats have an obligation to present a unified, dignified, and diverse front to the American People.  In her reign as House Democratic Leader, Nancy Pelosi has demonstrated a personal style in some respects reminiscent of a plantation mistress.  Her treatment of the Congressional Black Caucus as her personal servants and her refusal to defend the honor of Cynthia McKinney has left a bitter taste in my mouth.

Mrs. Pelosi forced the removal of some members of the Congressional Black Caucus from co-sponsoring the Voting Rights Act of 2006 for fear the Republicans in control of Congress would back off and kill it because it was "too black."  Miss Nancy rules with an iron hand and demands compliance with her dictates.  She cut Congresswoman Jane Harman loose from having a leadership role as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, where she has been nothing more than a coquettish doormat for the Bush Administration.

Now, as she sits on the precipice of unprecedented power as the Speaker of the House in waiting, she has made her choice for Majority Leader known for all to see.  When she needed someone to manage her race for House Leadership, Jack Murtha was the man to who she turned.  When the House Democratic Caucus needed someone of unchallenged credibility on military matters to articulate opposition to the Iraq debacle, she turned to decorated marine and Vietnam Veteran Jack Murtha.

Steele away, a right-wing Negro spiritual

Refrain

Steele away, Steele away, Steele away to Dubya
Steele away, Steele away home,
I ain't got long to fool ya.

My Lord, He calls me,
He calls me by the thunder of right-wing religiosity;
The trumpet sounds within my soul,
I ain't got long to fool ya.

Refrain

Greenbacks are a spendin',
White democrats stand a-trembling;
The trumpet sounds within my soul,
I ain't got long to fool ya.

Refrain

My Lord, He calls me,
He calls me by the lightning of right-wing religiosity;
The trumpet sounds within my soul,
I ain't got long to fool ya.

Memorandum

TO: George Felix Allen, Jr.

FR: Skeptical Brotha

RE: Your obvious and unapologetic racism

I've got a bright idea George. How about you hold a press conference to address the allegations of your obvious and unapologetic racism surrounded by colored folks? What do you say? I am sure there is a plethora of right-wing Negroes willing and able to prostitute themselves once again to benefit a racist of your presidential stature.

Whom should you invite, you say? Well, for starters, I think you should invite some of those crackheads that endorsed Michael Steele last week. You know, for authenticity. Then you could send out a desperate S.O.S. to some of the black fools who've worked for you: Kay Coles James and the President's personal shoplifter, Claude Allen. Claude who, you say? You know, he was Bush's domestic policy advisor and the homophobic wingnut you tried to appoint to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. I am sure they can vouch for you in the most unbelievable fashion possible.

We cannot forget to invite the homegrown fools: Hampton University President Dr. William R. Harvey and State Senator Bennie Lambert. They've already embarrassed themselves before God and man by endorsing you already. Speaking of embarrassing Negroes, we cannot forget to invite Dr. Walter Williams, the hateful black conservative Economics professor atGeorge Mason University. There is a treasure trove of self-loathing Negro academics out there to choose from. You can extend invitations to Affirmative Action opponents Thomas Sowell, former Ambassador Allen Keyes, Shelby Steele, and last but not least, John McWhorter.